Yeah, I've had this discussion here before and still can't believe it. The ANG will work with folks to get them their AD retirement if they're close. In fact, it's encouraged by all levels of leadership. It's a win/win. Billets get filled by folks who volunteer and the volunteers get their career goals met. Tons of ADOS and STAT tours for 3-4 years out there at all of the MAJCOM bases just for this reason. Lots of ability to homestead and keep family stability. It can be a bit of work to keep flying, but it's not impossible by any means.
The Army folks I deployed with were always amazed at the Navy's aversion to letting us get sanctuary, I personally knew at least half a dozen Army Reserve folks who made or were about to make sanctuary. I knew of only two Navy folks who made sanctuary, through anecdotes passed along at drill weekends, one was a CAPT who was BNR'd by a VADM and the other was a Chief that slipped through somehow. I also know a guy who was 10 days away from sanctuary on orders that took him to almost 19 years when his orders got changed, NAVRES 'fixed the glitch' just in time!
The rationale behind it is that mil retirement pay between day 1 of retirement and age 60 is funded by the services; after that it comes out of the VA budget. So sanctuary works to the service's benefit too because they know that CDR Timmy is retirement eligible in two years and they can budget accordingly. Since Reservists don't necessarily work that way, they can't budget that way, and so they don't let them do it.
I'm pretty sure military retirement comes out of the DoD budget for the entire length of a servicemember's retirement and doesn't switch over to the VA at age 60, if that is what you are saying, except when someone has less than 50% VA disability and a military retirement then I don't know how it is split.
Could you change things and make it work to everyone's benefit (sailor and Navy)? I have never yet seen an explanation why not, except "it's hard." And it would certainly help at least some IA pain. But the Navy refuses to do it, and has for years.
I was told by several folks smarter about Navy Reserve budget stuff (didn't take much) that for the Navy in particular it had to do with who in the Navy ended up having to pay for it, and for the Navy is was the Navy Reserve that had to pay for a Navy reservist's retirement 'out of hide' until age 60. I don't know the veracity of that but it kinda made sense to someone who is somewhat familiar with how government budgets work.
The Guard takes off a day of age 60 for each day you are deployed overseas, in 90 day increments. That, with some AGR time got me 53% at just past my 58th birthday. Does the Navy Reserve do that too?
It is a universal DoD thing/law, though it is dependent on the type of orders you get (most qualify, but it is worth double checking your orders). When it first took effect back in '08 the 90 day clock reset at the beginning of the FY, if you were less than 90 it went back to 0, but they 'fixed the glitch' a few years later.
I know quite a few airline guys who did years active duty during their furloughs, one had done almost 7 years active and was going to get his retirement less than 3 years after retiring because of that rule.
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